This Private Day Tour takes you into French-speaking Switzerland, because two worlds fit into one day here: the honey-coloured sandstone old town of Neuchâtel right on Lake Neuchâtel, and the quiet Val-de-Travers, where absinthe was born. In Neuchâtel you stroll along the Quai Ostervald at the water’s edge and through the medieval lanes below the castle and collegiate church. Then it’s about half an hour deeper into the Jura, into the valley of the Route de l’Absinthe, where some twenty small distilleries and the Maison de l’Absinthe in Môtiers keep the story of the “green fairy” alive.
The roughly one-and-a-half to two-hour drive from Zurich is ours to handle: no rental car, no winding Jura roads at the wheel, no checking a train timetable. Your chauffeur brings you out in a Mercedes V-Class, waits on site, and drives you safely home in the evening – so a glass of absinthe at the tasting is no problem, because no one in your party has to drive.
